More internet for me

Today is my second day of a faster internet connection. I can’t believe I put up with dialup as long as I did.

When I first started blogging two and a half years ago, I would have to go to my study/spare room, turn on the computer, wait an age for it to boot up, dialup, and wait for all of that. I would then wait another age for my email to open up and then wait for the window I’m typing in now to open up to write a blog entry.

A couple of months ago I decided to upgrade my computer and bought a laptop. This meant that I didn’t have to go to the study – all the way at the other end of the house – but I could do my blog entries from the kitchen or from the lounge room. It still involved getting the phone cord out of the drawer, unplugging my telephone, plugging in the dialup stuff and dialling up and waiting ages for email and web browser to open.

With my Flickr account, uploading photos from home was also a nightmare because they would take ages to upload and then ages to save any descriptions and titles.

Then a few weeks ago I started researching broadband plans in earnest. I tried Telstra Bigpond but was not at all impressed with the salesperson I got a hold of. I also didn’t like that if you went over your limit you would be slugged for extra costs and I can’t afford an unlimited plan.

I ended up going with Internode. They have a pretty good reputation, excellent technical support as I have found out when hooking up my sister with her broadband and then again with mine. Plus geek friends of mine use and recommend them. The only thing I think they could improve on is their online technical support documentation. The documentation they do have is useful up to a point but for a relative newbie like myself there are glaring holes. It’s just as well their telephone support is so good – the only drawback being the wait times.

Now I’m using my computer so much that my eyes hurt. I’ve had some extra paid work on and have been really busy doing that this week but that’s winding down now so my internet usage at home will be more for fun now.